Bateman's post on Justice and subsequent comments reminded me of how I often wonder if the contact with game design can help us to improve our sense of fairness. After all, it's also about balancing asymetrical sides and giving fair conditions to players, taking in consideration several factors involved - player skills, difficulty level, etc.
A pratical example: Teachers might find better ways to test their students, for instance, considering their ability (and willingness) to improve their work after initial correction and evaluation.
After all, from a game design perspective, fairness is always necessary to avoid frustration from the player - and that includes giving them less or more than needed.
2 comments:
I wonder about the question of fairness in games, in particular because I'm not convinced fiero-seeking players are looking for fairness, per se (although they certainly don't want the game to cheat against them!)
Fiero-seekers seem to need to be punished thoroughly, so they can feel the payoff when they eventually overcome. This requires not fairness, per se, but for the game to pile punishment upon them!
So what does fairness in games mean? If there was a social contract between designer and player, what would it say about fairness? I shall have to ponder... ;)
Good point. I guess even extra-hard games are, in a certain way, fair. Of course, players it want it to feel as extreme, unbalanced, unfair, experience. But even those games are constructed in a way that challenges presented can be acomplished, even if it take some time for the player to find out how. Enemies and obstacles can be unfair - but not the design, or the designer.
But, hey, that's just a guess.
Thanks for joining the discussion!
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